Around the turn of the century, the Onion ran a classic article about dolphins growing opposable thumbs and wreaking havoc on the human race – and although no one could have known it at the time, but there really was a plague preparing to descend upon us from the oceans, in the form of surfers turned guitar-strumming pop stars. Okay, so if you want to get technical about it, the plague hasn’t really arrived yet – so far, we’ve really only had to deal with Jack Johnson (and Matt Costa, but he’s a skateboarder, so he doesn’t really count) – but mark our words, it’s on its way. As proof, here’s another one: Timmy Curran, whose strum-diddly-umptious debut, Word of Mouth, is out now. On the granola-pop spectrum, Curran lands closer to Xavier Rudd than Jack Johnson – with a dash of Paul Simon and maybe just a pinch of Astrid Williamson thrown in – which is a very good thing, because it keeps the album from sliding into dullsville. But don’t worry, hacky sack fans – Curran doesn’t get too crazy; these songs still carry enough of a bongo-playing Matthew McConaughey vibe to keep your mellow from harshing. The end result isn’t anything especially memorable, but Curran is a decent enough songwriter and vocalist to quit his day job one of these days. Getting people to accept a grown man named Timmy, on the other hand… (Citsuca 2008)
